Stop acting your age to help prepare for your retirement

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There are health and life benefits in acting younger than you are. And in thinking you are younger than you are. Are you up for it?

Research back in 1981

In 1981, Ellen Langer, a young psychologist, ran an experiment involving eight men in their 70s being sent into a time-warp situation. A monastery had been redecorated as if it were 1959—when the men were in their 40s and 50s.

Langer didn’t publish the full results at the time because she feared she would not be believed. She’s now a Harvard professor.

The men were told to not only reminisce about this time in their lives but to inhabit it. They were to attempt to be the person they were 22 years earlier.

After five days of reliving their younger days, they all became more flexible, had greater dexterity, sat taller and actually looked younger. One arrived at the monastery in a wheelchair and walked out with the aid of a cane.

While waiting for the bus back to their retirement village, the 70-year-olds spontaneously started playing touch football.

Unbelievable! Which is why Langer didn’t publish the full results.

How old do you feel?

A couple of years ago the Journal of the American Medical Associationreported on research where 6489 individuals 52 years and older were asked how old they felt. The average real age was 65.8 years old. The average self-perceived age was 56.8 years.

For the statisticians, 69.6% felt three or more years younger than their age; 25.6% felt close to their actual age; and 4.8% felt a year or more older than they were.

So?

The so comes in the death rate during the 99-month follow-up. Only 14.3% of those who felt younger than they were had died in that time; a higher percentage (18.5%) had died among those who felt they were the age they were; but almost a quarter (24.6%) of those who felt older than they were died in that time.

The report said: ‘After adjusting for all [variables], there remained a 41% greater mortality hazard in people who felt older than their actual age compared with those who felt younger than their actual age.’

How old do you feel?

What does this have to do with retirement?

If you’re thinking about retirement, it probably means you’re ageing.

There are times when you need to act your age, but not always. There are even times when you can act in a child-like way (not childish). The indicators are that there are benefits to acting younger than you are.

Feeling younger is about attitude. You and I both know that 60 is not really the new 40. But there’s the possibility that if we acted a bit younger, we would also feel younger.

A fascinating experiment found that retirees who were encouraged to envisage their retirement wanted to save 31% more of their pay for retirement than those who hadn’t imagined theirs. Visualising can have an impact because it imagines a future possibility. By imagining it, we’re more prepared to make it happen.

In theory, the Age Pension age is set as the minimum age at which a typical senior is considered no longer able to work enough hours to generate the income needed for a modest standard of living. However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t work.

After taking the previous steps to this point, it’s now time to enjoy the harvest and to celebrate. What you’ve planted and nurtured on the inside, should now begin to produce a harvest on the outside.

The YourLifeChoices Retirement Affordability Index aims to help you understand how much money you currently need to live at various levels and lifestyles in retirement. In this issue, there’s a helpful discussion about how to make your Superannuation go further.

You are no doubt aware they exist. You may have seen them on foodie blogs, Instagram feeds or on the menu at your local café. Wholegrains are an important food group essential to a healthy diet. Read on to find out why they are so wonderful and how you can eat more!